North Amherst, Massachusetts poet Dara Wier’s
new collection of poems, You Good Thing
(Wave Books, 2013) is a collection of self-described “loose-sonnets,” akin to a
form that Toronto writer David W. McFadden has been exploring deeply over the
past few years as well. Combining a long cadence with a strong narrative, You Good Thing is constructed out of
forty-two sonnets that explore the long sentence, and sweep through and around
a series of observations, breath-takes and commentaries on social issues and
globalization, with titles such as “THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS” (quoting that famous line scratched into Woody Guthrie’s guitar), “AT ISSUE WERE THE WAYS /
WE WOULD WELCOME THEM” and “MANY SIMILES ARE PROTESTANT, / MOST METAPHOR IS NOT.”
Much in the way of Anne Carson’s Short Talks (Brick Books, 1992), You Good
Thing is a collection of poems composed as a series of small essays on
being alive in the world. In this way too, she and David W. McFadden might get
along quite well.